The invention relates to stacking carts for newspapers, and more particularly to a novel stacking cart for stacking, bundling, transporting and unloading newspapers or other stackable paper.
The general public as well as local governments have become increasingly aware of the necessity to recycle trash and garbage to conserve natural resources and protect the environment. Accordingly, trash is being sorted by consumers and/or their communities for recycling and to provide another source of raw materials for the manufacture of new products. Recycling helps to conserve natural resources and reduces the amount of landfill sites which otherwise spoil the landscape and contribute to the pollution of groundwater. Recycling also helps reduce atmospheric pollution by decreasing the amount of trash disposed in incinerators.
Paper trash, and in particular newspaper, is of great concern because tremendous volumes of newspaper are disposed of on a daily basis. Consequently, the dumping and incineration of newspapers places an extreme burden on both landfills and incinerators. Thus, the practice of collecting newspapers for recycling is becoming more widespread and in certain cases compulsory based on local laws.
Newspapers, by their nature, are bulky and inconvenient to discard in domestic garbage containers. In many instances newspapers are haphazardly accumulated in loose piles in a household or business and then stacked at a collection site for pickup and disposal by the sanitation authorities. If the newspaper bundles are in disorder or disarray at the collection site, they cannot be efficiently collected.
One problem encountered by consumers in collecting newspapers for recycling is the lack of a device that permits convenient storing, bundling and unloading of a large stack of newspapers. If newspapers are piled in large stacks prior to disposal, there are attendant problems of lifting, moving and depositing such bundles at a collection site for pickup. A consumer also risks strain or injury when moving stacked or bundled newspapers to a collection site due to the weight and bulk of the newspapers.
Although baling machines such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,246,923 for baling large amounts of paper have long been available, these machines are neither suitable for home use nor can the papers which have been baled in the machine be easily moved or transported to a desired location.
For small business establishments or households, a number of devices have been proposed for collection of newspapers as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,521,126; 2,636,432; 2,679,321; 3,382,794; 3,739,714; 3,850,092; 4,926,748 and Des. No. 228,052. Although each of these patents shows a device for stacking and/or bundling newspapers, none of them permit convenient moving and unloading of the stacks of paper after they have been bundled.
It is thus desirable to provide a stacking cart for newspapers and the like wherein the newspapers can be conveniently stacked, bundled, moved and unloaded.